Environmental economics research training program goes national in its second year
Last summer, the Environmental Inequality Lab piloted a new kind of research training experience: a small, University of Virginia-based cohort of students and predoctoral research associates, working alongside faculty to build the skills needed for research careers in economics, environmental science and public policy. At the time, the lab said it looked forward to building on the model in the years ahead.
Just a year later, it did. Now formally called the Environmental & Energy Economics Research Training Program, the 10-week initiative – which ran from May 26 to July 31 – is hosted by the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, supported by the Department of Economics. The program is led by Jay Shimshack, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of public policy and economics, and Jonathan Colmer, associate professor of economics and public policy and director of the Environmental Inequality Lab. Jenna Anders, assistant professor of public policy and economics, provided additional mentorship.
With new funding from the Sloan Foundation, the program expanded into a national model this summer, drawing a cohort of six interns – two from UVA and four from universities across the country – alongside four full-time predoctoral research associates.
“We are extremely grateful to the Sloan Foundation for a generous grant,” Shimshack said. “Thanks to that support, along with the UVA Batten School and the UVA College of Arts and Sciences, we are strengthening pathways and pipelines into research-oriented careers in environmental and energy economics and policy, with a long-term goal of broadening access and expanding participation in the field.”
The program opened with an intensive research training bootcamp covering data management, analysis, reproducible coding and responsible use of artificial intelligence tools in a research setting.
From there, interns were matched with active Environmental Inequality Lab projects based on their interests and skills, working in small teams under faculty mentorship to build new datasets, conduct economic analysis and translate their work into public-facing products like research briefs and policy reports.
“There are very few opportunities for undergraduates to have exposure to environmental and energy economics in their courses or in the research community,” said Colmer. “We wanted to provide an experience that these students would otherwise not have had access to.”
Lucie Talikoff, a rising senior at Georgetown University, led an independent analysis of Virginia’s July 1 reentry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon cap-and-trade program. Her research quantified how the resulting rise in electricity costs would fall disproportionately on lower-income households, then modeled how rebating a portion of the program’s auction revenue back to Virginians could more than offset those costs across all income brackets.
“It would be a complete inversion of what would have happened as a result of RGGI alone,” Talikoff said. She is now preparing both a public-facing report and a policy journal version to provide the analysis to lawmakers.
Grace Carver, a rising senior at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, spent the summer building clear, documented datasets from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Act enforcement records – creating “analysis-ready” infrastructure that other researchers can build on – before joining a second project synthesizing research into an academic paper on the income gap between Appalachia and the rest of the country.
“We had this monster of information, and my goal was to create a narrative out of it – string everything together, find a common thread and write an interesting academic paper about Appalachia’s economic circumstances,” Carver said.
Winn Philpott, a second-year UVA Batten Master of Public Policy student, worked on the lab’s growing library of public-facing research products, developing style guides and translating working papers into easy-to-read research highlights.
“I feel really prepared to take any outcomes or information that I might get through quantitative analysis and communicate that with policymakers or stakeholders,” Philpott said.
Shimshack and Colmer’s approach to mentorship strikes a balance between agency and guidance, giving interns room to lead their exploration while staying available when they need support.
“Dr. Shimshack and Dr. Colmer are gold mines for wisdom,” Talikoff said.
Colmer says watching interns grow is what keeps him doing this work.
“It’s incredibly inspiring to see what young people are able to achieve given the opportunity,” Colmer said. “Give them a bit of rope, and what they’re able to deliver is just incredible. That’s what motivates us to create these opportunities in the first place.”
Looking ahead, the Environmental Inequality Lab is building out its capacity for research communication by developing a package of public-facing products for every project, from press releases to research highlights, aimed at making the lab’s work more accessible to policymakers and the public.
“This summer’s program was terrific,” Shimshack said. “A talented and promising group of early career scholars developed skills in effective and ethical AI use, reproducible and efficient coding and research practices, data visualization, research translation and working in teams.
“We couldn’t have hoped for a better 10 weeks, and we’re already excited to do it again next year.”
